


No Such Thing As Good Intentions

by HaveAngstWillWrite



Category: RWBY
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Crime AU, F/F, Heist, Heist AU, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Self-Harm
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-15
Updated: 2019-02-20
Packaged: 2019-10-10 18:37:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 15,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17431364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HaveAngstWillWrite/pseuds/HaveAngstWillWrite
Summary: Ruby Rose is a sixteen year old hacker.Yang Xiao-Long is a eighteen year old hitman.Blake Belladonna is a seventeen year old thief.Weiss Schnee is a sixteen year old rich girl turned conman.They all get a call from a mysterious "Mr. Wizard" offering the job of a lifetime, but will it be too good to be true?





	1. Chapter 1

It was pretty easy for Ruby to hack into Schnee Incorporated’s business holdings, to say their security was a joke would be insult to hardworking comedians everywhere. The sixteen year old snorted at her own joke as she disappeared into the IT department’s admin account and started poking around. Stock shares, business transactions…then she found it.

 

_ Hello little compressed encrypted file, _ Ruby thought, _ fancy meeting you here, what secrets do you hold in your memory? _

 

She let her fingers dance across the keyboard as they chipped away at the lackadaisical defenses that seemed cobbled together by toddlers. It was as easy as pie, within seconds, she was trolling through some very secret and very illegal documents. Jacques Schnee had been a very naughty boy, fraud, embezzlement, unsafe labour practices, the whole shebang. 

 

_ Oh boy, what a shame it would be if this got out Jacques. _ Ruby anonymously downloaded the entire file to a server in Alexandria that would disseminate the file into the great information superhighway. 

 

_ Oops, my fingers slipped. _ She thought as she giggled, she had done all that with only one hand, while the other was busy playing an MMORPG.  _ All in a day’s work. _ The girl in her crimson hoodie thought as she stretched out and sent the completed job message to her client. Immediately, half a million Lien deposited itself in her bank account. The hacker sat, feeling smugger than she probably had any right to be.

 

“Hey, Rubes!” A female voice yelled from the penthouse’s kitchen, “Dinner’s ready, come get it!”

 

“Coming Yang!” Ruby shouted back, turning her laptop off before bolting out of the room.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Yang Xiao-Long was tall, brawny and had enough tattoos to give a Hell’s Angel ink envy. That would have been enough to get most people to cross the street when they saw the brawler, but what really did it was the robot arm, a prosthetic from a motorcycle accident that ended up being a blessing in disguise, considering she could now choke slam a motherfucker without breaking a sweat. Or she could expertly create a masterful dinner, like she had just now. After locking up the knife drawer, she yelled, her half-sister had descended on her food and studied it with intensity.

 

It was a rule in the house that while Ruby was aloud to stay cooped in her room everyday to do her technological blood sacrifices and stuff, breakfast and dinner were sister bonding times. Yang made dinner, made sure Ruby’s meat was cut and all the different foods were separated by two inches

 

“So, Rubes,” Yang asked as the young one stuffed her face. “Who’s porn file did you expose today?”

 

Ruby wiped her mouth and started on whole bunch of technobabble that the blonde couldn't understand to save her life.

 

“Sounds good, how much didya get?”

 

“Half a mil.” she replied, shrugging.

 

Yang nodded and mentally added that to the budget, it was good enough for a bit, but she might have to take another job. Suddenly, her secure phone dinged and she pulled up the message and started reading. Holy shit on a cracker, that was a lot of zeroes.

 

“Rubes, look at this!” she exclaimed excitedly. “Twenty million big ones!”

 

The hacker jumped over at the screen, all that was given was a short message:

 

_ Job for you. 10 million per person. Meet at Beacon Industries. 12:00 p.m. tomorrow. Ask for Mr. Wizard. _

 

“That’s enough to keep us fed for a lifetime!” Yang exclaimed. “Not to mention a new bike for me and some more tech shit for you!”

 

Ruby whipped out her phone and used the magic of Google. Beacon Industries was a small company, but they took a lot of military contracts. It was pretty obvious what that meant, weapons manufacturers. It probably wasn’t going to be safe, but Yang was right, it was too good to pass up, and she’d had her eye on this shiny new graphics card…

 

“Okay, let’s go meet Mr. Wizard.”


	2. Chapter 2

Weiss stared at the phone in her hand, on it was a display of a pair of chibi girls. One wearing a red hoodie and high tops with a black skirt and hipster glasses next to a blonde in a black suit who was covered in tattoos.

 

_ Job complete! _ It said,  _ Thank you for choosing Strawberry Sunrise Liquidation Services! Your business is appreciated! Remember, if we can’t solve your problem one way, we’ll solve it another. _

 

Weiss sent the half million and smiled, her father was about to get some very bad news. His lawyers would probably fix it, but she reveled in annoying him from a continent away. Now she just needed to come up with another half million to get a nice place here, because there was no way she was going home to Atlas. As if by magic a man pulled up to the hotel in a red sports car. Seeing an opportunity, Weiss shrugged on the red vest that valets world around used to distinguish themselves. 

 

“I can park that for you, sir!” Weiss called and gave her best shy and flustered look.

 

The man frowned, but handed her the keys. “If I find so much as a smudge, you’re losing your job.”

 

Weiss smiled, but inside she was gritting her teeth and imagining the bastard without a head. She hated snobs like him, probably because she was raised by one. She hopped into the car and turned the key. She left the hotel lot slowly, before pushing down on the accelerator and roaring down the street. The car would a little under get her twenty thousand at a good chop shop, she could probably do some card counting on a casino floor for a little extra cash, but that was always a little risky. It would have been easy to go crawling back to her father for money, but that wasn’t her way. Just as she was about to turn a corner, her phone squawked at her. Carefully keeping one eye on the road, she grabbed it and read the message. Bad idea, when she saw the number she swerved straight into a light pole. Airbags deployed, Weiss’s head slammed back, lessons were learned.

 

Quickly getting out, Weiss fled as fast as she could. She didn’t want to explain to the cops what happened. She chuckled at the thought of that conversation.

 

_ Well, Officer, I stole this rich man’s car and then I got distracted because someone just offered me ten million dollars, but in my defense, he really deserved it. _

 

Weiss glanced down at the phone again.

 

_ Job for you. 10 million per person. Meet at Beacon Industries. 12:00 p.m. tomorrow. Ask for Mr. Wizard. _

 

_ Job for you. 10 million per person. Meet at Beacon Industries. 12:00 p.m. tomorrow. Ask for Mr. Wizard.  _

  
_ Very well,  _ the Schnee thought,  _ Let’s meet the man that just cost me a payday and made me run in dress flats. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I got some questions asking what I got for inspiration for this story (Thank you all for your kind comments! Hugs and shit from the devil for you! MWAH!) The answer is that I sorta just fell in love with heist shows and stuff (Yes, including Leverage, commenter who's name escapes me.) So, yeah we'll see where all this goes, I hope you like it!


	3. Chapter 3

Blake Belladonna was early, she liked that, early meant that you were less likely to be surprised. Staking out the house was no problem, she watched everyone entering and leaving, mentally cataloging who went where and when. By night time she knew more about the people living in the manor than anyone else. She knew who snuck off with who, who hated who, who had snuck away for a party tonight. She was a fly on the wall and she loved it.

 

As silently as she could, the Faunus crept up to the third story window, the building plans she’d taken from the Department of Architecture showed that the showroom would be right next to the one she was about to enter. Normally, she wouldn’t enter so close to her target, but like most of the rich and powerful in the area, they kept security lax.

 

_ Nothing makes someone as ignorant as money. _ Blake thought as she climbed, finding handholds and cracks where only a master thief could. Inside, the room was dark and empty, except for a few boxes and crates. Slowly, she padded towards the door and sprayed WD-40 on the hinges, if she was getting caught, it wasn’t going to be by a creaky door.

 

She opened the door at a snail’s pace, this part of the theft was always a bit difficult for her. The tension in her body screamed for her to rush forward, but she knew that was a bad idea. Fast thieves were reckless thieves and reckless thieves got caught. 

 

Finally, she got to the next room and studied the door. There were no obvious traps, so she opened it. On the door jamb, there was a small trip laser that she stepped over. She pulled out a can of disinfectant spray and checked to see if she was going to have to pull an Ocean’s Eleven. Unfortunately, it seemed she wore her spandex stuff for nothing. In the middle of the room, there sat a huge  Fabergé egg on a pedestal. Carefully, she lifted it and went to put it in her pack. That was when the alarm’s started.

 

_ Fucking dumbass _ , she cursed herself. She had fallen for the oldest trick in the book, weight sensors on the display. She had gotten Indiana Jonesed. Quickly, she dropped the egg, if they had enough brains to rig a pressure sensor, they probably he had a tracker. Then she jumped out the nearest window and sprinted to her exit. The walls of the property, were fifteen feet of smooth granite, impossible to climb normally, but Blake had left a grapple hook dangling from the edge. She scrambled up and over, hitting the ground running.

 

She ran down two separate alleys, climbed four apartments and by the time she slowed down, she had traveled fifteen blocks from the manor. Stopping to catch her breath, she inhaled deeply, before releasing enough curses to make a sailor cringe. That was her ticket out of homeless shelters, out of Vale, maybe to somewhere warm and sunny, where Adam Taurus would never set foot. Just as she was bereaving her loss, her phone went off. She picked it up and read the message.

 

_ Job for you. 10 million per person. Meet at Beacon Industries. 12:00 p.m. tomorrow. Ask for Mr. Wizard. _

 

_ Well, _ she thought,  _ I don’t really have a choice, do I? _

It was five o'clock in the morning and her maps said Beacon Industries was fifteen miles away. She had everything she needed in her bag. So, she got up and started walking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Answering Questions Time:  
> Someone asked if this was crime for a good cause or money, I'd say it's a mix. Obviously Ruby is too kind hearted to do something just for money, but Weiss...ehhhhh.
> 
> As for how long this is going to be, I honestly have no fucking clue, we'll see where it goes.
> 
> Also, just wondering, has anybody spotted the possible future angst from chapter 1?


	4. Chapter 4

Beacon Industries was a chaotic tempest, people shuffled around, running into each other every couple seconds. I.T. geeks were sitting around typing on keyboards at speeds that could only have been caused by eight coffees or a dose of methamphetamines. Ruby hated it, all the swirling colors and clamor were dizzying to her. She took a deep breath and did what her therapist said, instead of taking it all in, she focused on one detail at a time. The walls were a vivid green that contrasted heavily with the checkered black and white floor. The reception desk was a nice mahogany and very well organized. Ruby started to feel calmer, she silently promised to send Dr. Peach a Christmas card this year. She was happy to pay that woman two thousand a month to help her cope. The hacker felt a sting on her hand and looked down, her knuckles were red and raw, she must have been picking at them. Silently, she pulled her sleeves down to cover them.

 

Yang walked up to the receptionist and leaned on the desk, she was wearing her business suit, which was really her only suit. A deep black jacket and slacks with a lavender dress shirt and a yellow tie, paired with black gloves to hide her prosthetic.

 

“Excuse me,” she called to the girl, a nice deer Faunus with a cute pantsuit. “We’re here to see a Mr. Wizard. He’s expecting us.”

 

Her eyes got really wide and she nodded like a bobblehead. Carefully, she handed them a keycard and gave them quick directions to slide it into the slot in the elevator and select the top floor. Doing as they were told, the sisters waited as they ascended. The elevator music was probably some engineers version of a joke, Never Gonna Give You Up. The door slid open to a singular office with a black desk with four seats in front of it and a clockwork motif on the window. Behind the desk stood a man with silver hair and the weirdest glasses Ruby had ever seen.

 

“Hey,” Yang said. “You Mr. Wizard?”

 

The man smiled softly and got up, leaning on a black cane. “Yes, I am,” he responded. “And you must be Ms. Xiao-Long, an honor to meet you.”

 

“Pleasure, now what’s the job?”

 

The man chuckled. “Patience, Ms. Xiao-Long, all will be revealed in time. Would you like some cookies?” he gestured to a plate laden with chocolate chip. Ruby bolted toward it, because cookies, but Yang yanked her back by her hood. 

 

“Thanks, but we’re good.”

 

He nodded and leaned on his desk. “Very well.”

 

The elevator dinged and it opened to a pair of very angry women. One was dressed in a simple black t-shirt and jeans, the only other thing she was wearing was a bow on the top of her head, her eyes were a cool and collected amber and her skin was like cinnamon. Next to her was a girl dressed in a white dress with a short skirt and high heels. Her skin was pale and her hair was whiter than snow. She had pale blue eyes and a scar that ran through one. Ruby really liked her eyes, they were very intriguing to her.

 

“Ah, good,” the man stated. “Everyone’s here, now we can begin.”

 

As he walked back behind the desk, he gestured to the seats in front of him. All the girls obliged and plopped themselves down in a chair. 

 

“Now,” he said as he sat down. “I believe introductions are in order, I am Ozpin, CEO and CCO of Beacon Industries. And you four are potentially the best in your fields. Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao-Long, the hacker and hitman team of Strawberry Sunrise.” He nodded to each of them, then turned to the girl in black. “Blake Belladonna, cat burglar extraordinaire.” Finally, he turned to the girl with the blue eyes. “And Weiss Schnee, Conwoman and former heiress to Schnee Incorporated.” Ruby stiffened,  _ Schnee _ , that was not good, not good at all. She doubted that the girl would be very happy about what she and Ruby did to her papa.

 

Weiss turned and glared at Ruby and Yang. “Is this some kind of trick? I already paid you, your not getting anymore, you did what I asked, you got your money, that’s it!”

 

Yang burst out laughing, leaving Ruby was thoroughly confused. The younger sister tugged on the elder’s cuff and looked up quizzically.

 

“AHAHAHA! Rubes, she hired you! Don’t ya get it, she gave you the mon-” She collapsed back into laughter before she could finished.  _ Ah,  _ Ruby thought, now it made sense, Schnee wasn’t about to be upset about a job she requested.

 

“Ms. Schnee,” Ozpin cut in. “I assure you that Ms. Rose and Xiao-Long have had as much contact with me as you have. Now, to business.” He stood and started pacing slowly. “Back in the 80’s, My now ex-wife, Salem and I started a company. I was a great engineer, you see, and she could sell you saltwater in the middle of the ocean. She and I created Salem Enterprises, I let her choose the name. We started as a robotics company and slowly stretched out. Before I knew it, we went from making neural prosthetics to designing warheads. I was fine with that, I’d been a soldier once, I knew what it was like, our weapons could alleviate so many men of so much guilt. Then Salem hired a biologist by the name of Arthur Watts and what I saw him do was a picture of hell.”

 

His hands were shaking and he looked paler than should have been physically possible. “I tried to convince Salem to put an end to his experiments, but she refused. So, I fled, taking as many of my notes as I could with me. When she found out, she...she did something unforgivable. I built Beacon from the ground up, gave my blueprints to the highest bidder. I became what you see today. I’ve been waiting, biding my time, and now I’m ready to tear Salem’s company to the ground. That’s where you four come in.”

 

Blake was the first to speak, her voice was a little deeper than Ruby expected. “You want four teenage criminals to take down a mega-corporation that spans three continents?”

 

“Yes, you’ll start with one of her smaller branches, Fall & Co. Of course, all Beacons resources will be at your disposal. You need only call the number that first contacted you, that will patch you in to my assistant and greatest friend, Glynda. I apologize for her, she tends to be abrasive.”

 

“Okay,” Blake said. “I’m in, not like I have many other opportunities.”

 

Weiss stood up. “I suppose I could do worse.”

 

Yang looked to Ruby, “I’m up for it, Rubes, but it’s your choice.”

 

Ruby weighed the options in her mind, if they walked out, they would be leaving safe and unharmed, she could tell Ozpin wasn’t going to kill them if they said no. Plus, they wouldn’t paint a target on their backs for Salem Enterprises to fire at. However, they’d be walking away from a  _ lot _ of cash and they would be refusing to deal some justice. Not to mention the name Salem sounded so familiar, like there was something niggling in the back of her mind, trying to remind her of where she heard it.

 

She looked up at Yang and spoke, “Let’s do this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RWBY meets! anyone else excited? I am! anyways, I'm surprised I was able to do two chapters in one day. Alright, hope you like!
> 
> Yours In Satanic Fire,  
> HaveAngstWillWrite


	5. Chapter 5

It had been a week since they had started the job Ozpin had hired them for and Yang Xiao-Long was slowly going insane. Everyone else had some aspect of their skills that were needed at the moment, but Yang’s area of expertise was “not necessary at this time.” Yeah, she got it, she was a hitman and not exactly a stealthy cookie, but she had sent out feelers to see if any of her old contacts were feeling chatty. So, she sat around and waited while the others did their thing. Blake watched everything that went on in Fall & Co.’s main building from afar, apparently it was impossible to get in without a employee card, that’s how Weiss became a secretary for a few days. She didn’t learn much other than that secretaries don’t get much security clearance, but she did pretty good at color coding things.

 

Those two were doing fine, it was Ruby she was worried about. The poor girl was practically tearing her hair out at the security system. The first time she explained it, Yang didn’t understand it, but the second time, her sister had the grace to say it in English.

 

“Look, when someone has a secure system, they usually have one or two layers of strong walls, I can do a lot to get around them, climb over, tunnel under, or just blow the walls. This is different, it’s like there’s seven layers that move around, some of them are walls that can block me out with pure force, while others are flexible, almost living. It’s like hitting a trampoline at 80 miles per hour. When I manage to get past one, the other’s waiting for me and I get slung back to the beginning. ‘Do not pass go, Do not collect 200 dollars.’ And if I ever find this programmer I’m tearing them from limb to limb!”

 

Yang started keeping a closer eye on her sister, her meds were going down faster and she was afraid that they would run out before the prescription would let her get a refill. She tried to make everything orderly and kept to the routine as close as possible. It was a little hard with the new additions to the penthouse. When it came out that Weiss and Blake had nowhere to really stay, Ruby insisted they stay with them. That meant two extra plates at breakfast and dinner, two extra keys to the penthouse and two people to print out the routine for, with a strongly worded suggestion not to deviate. Blake had just looked at it and nodded like she understood. Weiss had seemed a little weirded out by it, but soon grew accustomed to it. 

 

That night was Rock Band Night, just like every other Thursday night and things were going good, they had done a few songs with perfect scores. Blake and Weiss were doing great, everything was fine, until Blake picked a song. A cold nugget of fear settled in Yang’s stomach.

 

“No,” She croaked, her voice sounded strangled even to her. “Not that one.”

 

Ruby leaned in and read the title, understanding dawning on her face. It was a Papa Roach song, Last Resort. “Yang, it’s fine-”

 

“No, it’s not!” She snapped, she took a few calming breaths, her hands were clenches so hard she get hear the metal of her prosthetic creaking under the pressure. She stood up and started walking away, never saying a word. When she reached her room, she slammed the door hard enough that she was pretty sure it cracked. Safe in her sanctuary, she felt the last of her strength go out and she collapsed on her bed.

 

—————————————————————————————————————--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Blake didn’t know what exactly was going on, but it was pretty obvious a sore spot had been hit. She looked at Weiss, the two hadn’t talked much to each other, mostly because Blake was a little hostile to the Schnee part of her name, but when their eyes met they had a silent agreement. Weiss would take care of Ruby, Blake would handle Yang. Slowly, she got up and walked down the hall to Yang’s door, she could hear heavy metal blasting behind the door that did little to mask the sobs that the blonde was emitting. Softly, Blake knocked on the door and opened without waiting for an answer, a move she stole straight from her mother.

 

“Hey,” Blake whispered. “How you doing?”

 

Turning over, Yang grabbed a remote and turned off the music. “What do you want?”

 

“Just wanted to see how your holding up.” She replied.

 

Sniffling, Yang sat up and Blake took the spot next to her on the bed.

 

“You know,” Yang said, her eyes still full of tears. “I had to raise Ruby since I was nine. My mother left before I was in the cradle and that destroyed my dad. Then when Ruby’s mom, my  _ real  _ mom, died, he just didn’t have anyone to pick up the pieces this time. He drowned himself in work, trying to escape the past. Oh, it’s not like he didn’t love us, he did, he just wasn’t good at coping. I had to grow up fast, I basically became Ruby’s mom. I paid attention to her in a way he didn’t. So, when I told him that Ruby had to needed her food exactly this way, or had to have her room organized that way. He tended to forget and when he forgot, Rubes had a meltdown. It became my job to make sure Ruby got what she needed, shampoo with only natural ingredients, noise canceling headphones.” She chuckled a bit. 

 

“I haven’t worn perfume since I was ten, it’s basically a guaranteed Rubes freak out inducer. Then Ruby started playing with computer code, she called it ‘making the machines dance’, it got her in some trouble with some bad people. Apparently, she poked some gang and they weren’t happy. They tried to kill her, sent a rookie, an  _ eight year old girl  _ and they tried to kill her. Dad wasn’t home, so I fought him off, I got his knife out of his hand and he rushed me. They say you never forget your first, they’re right. I remember every moment, Blake. How the blood dripped from his mouth, how he let out that little gurgle before he fell over, I remember all of it. After that, I figured we weren’t safe at home anymore, I left dad a note, explaining everything, then I took Rubes and left.”

“There were some lean years. I don’t remember when the jobs started, but it felt so good to be making money, to be able to afford things again. I guess I got caught up in it all, forgot about Ruby for a bit. I didn’t notice that something was wrong, that her grip on life was slipping. Until I came home and she was sitting on the kitchen floor with a steak knife in her hand. She had cut her wrists and was waiting to bleed out. I picked her up and drove her to the hospital. The whole time she was crying, begging me to make it stop, I thought she meant the bleeding, but she meant everything else. While We were at the hospital, the doctor came in and told me what was up. Ruby’s mind is amazing, but it’s still human, it wasn’t meant to take all the sensory stuff firing through her brain, it’s called autism spectrum disorder, she’s a fucking computer genius, but her brain’s basically on a permanent overclock and when you add in a sprinkle of OCD and a dash of ADHD, you get a nasty combination. Ruby’s entire universe is held together by order, if that disappears then everything crumbles.”

 

“I got her a therapist, got the meds she needed, set up a routine and locked up the knives just in case. She says she’s fine now, but I’ve seen how she scratches herself sometimes. She may have gotten better, may have gotten over it, but I still haven’t forgotten. I can’t let that happen again. I’m supposed to take care of her and I failed! I failed!” She sobbed into Blake’s shoulder and the Faunus wrapped her arms around her. Blake was a little shocked, she didn’t know Yang for long, but she always seemed so carefree. To see her like this was a bit like seeing a penguin fly.

 

“Yang,” Blake said softly, “you made a mistake, it happens, you’re human, you learned from it, but your letting it consume you. You’re a great person, you’ve done good by taking care of your sister all these years, but you need to stop and let yourself rest, you need to look after  _ you _ .”

 

“But, Ru-”

 

“Shh,” Blake hushed. “I’ll take care of Ruby, you take care of yourself.”

 

Yang wrapped her arms around Blake and held her tight. “Thank you, Blake, I needed that.”

 

“Hey, anytime.”

 

“Blake?” Yang looked up pleadingly with her lilac eyes.

 

“Y-yeah?”

 

“Could you stay with me? Just for tonight?”

 

Blake stiffened a bit, she didn’t want to get close to Yang, getting close meant bad things would happen, but Yang needed someone to be with her, even if it was just for a single night.

 

“Ok, just for tonight.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I heard y'all like some angst? here's a big ol' helping of it. The question for next chapter, how'd it go with Ruby and Weiss and who's going to clean up the damn Rock Band Shit!!!!
> 
> Thank you for the comments!
> 
> (whoops, chapter got posted twice, fixed it.)


	6. Chapter 6

Weiss watched Blake walk over to Yang’s room and she shuffled over to Ruby. The hacker had pulled her hood up and had her knees up to her chest. It reminded her of how Whitley would get when he was younger and father would yell at him, he didn’t yell back like Winter or acquiesce like Weiss, he just folded inward. Ruby looked like that now, like she was trying to figure out how small she had to get before she could disappear. Carefully, Weiss kneeled in front of her seat.

 

“Ruby, I’m going to touch you now,” she warned. “Is that okay?”

 

There was no real response, but Weiss had enough experience with this to know she needed touch. She gently laid her hands on Ruby’s knees to give her an anchor, some sensation she could use to get back from wherever she was. Slowly, as if she only just realized Weiss existed, Ruby’s quicksilver eyes rose up to meet Weiss’s gaze through her glasses. The white haired girl smiled softly.

 

“There you are,” she said. “Want to talk about what happened?”

 

Ruby shook her head.

 

“Okay, do you mind if I take a guess?”

 

Ruby shrugged.

 

“Ok, let me think.”

 

She looked at the evidence and tried to see a pattern. When she first met Ruby, she figured that the girl was just a bit eccentric, with her demeanor switching from childish to adult in mere seconds and her weird obsession with food spacing, oh, and the shampoo problem. But then Yang showed her the routine, a fifty page indexed booklet, and she understood. Ruby’s whole psyche was on a tight wire and Yang did her best to balance it, but why such a visceral reaction to a song. She reviewed the lyrics in her head.

 

_ Cut my life into pieces, this is my last resort. _

 

_ Suffocation, no breathing. _

 

_ Don’t give a fuck if I cut my own bleeding. _

 

Then she thought back to one of the few times Ruby left the penthouse, when Weiss got coffee for everyone and Ruby needed to make sure they got her order right. When the cups had come up, Ruby payed with a twenty from her wallet. That’s when Weiss saw she only carried cash. When she asked the hacker about it she mumbled something about cards being sharp.  _ Cards are sharp, so she doesn’t carry them. _

 

Finally, her eyes flicked to the kitchen and that locked drawer with all the knives. If she were in a cartoon, a light bulb would be above her head.

 

“Ruby, could I see your arms?” She asked, she was careful to make sure it sounded like a request rather than a demand.

Ruby practically shoved her arms at Weiss and looked away. Slowly, Weiss rolled up the sleeves and revealed to long and neat horizontal scars that went up the length of her forearm in neat, orderly lines, all equidistant from each other. Tears fell from Ruby’s eyes and she tried to pull her arms back, but Weiss held them firm. Sitting on the couch so she was at the same level as the hooded girl.

 

“Shhh,” she said soothingly. “It’s okay,  _ Ich bin hier, es ist in Ordnung _ ”

 

She kept saying soothing phrases in her native tongue and Ruby relaxed more and more. Finally, the girl fell into Weiss’s lap, all the fight gone from her.

 

“ _ Es ist in Ordnung, Blume, du bist jetzt in Sicherheit _ ”

 

They stayed like that for awhile, until Ruby fell asleep. Weiss gently replaced her lap with a pillow and watched Ruby snuggle up to it. Quietly, she began packing away all the stuff from Rock Band. Apparently, Ruby was very particular about everything going back into the box they came in. By the time she finished, it was two a.m. and she didn’t feel like a bed was in her future.

 

_ Eh, _ She thought.  _ Sleep is just a suggestion. _

 

She grabbed a book from the shelf in the living room and started reading. It was an older book, about a detective solving crimes with his assistant. It was quite intriguing, although the science wasn’t exactly the best. She slowly got engrossed in the man’s escapades. By the time she closed the book, the sun had risen and made it’s irritating person well known.

 

Nobody had stirred yet and the penthouse was pitched in silence. She considered making breakfast for everyone, but she didn’t have a key for the knives and Ruby was pretty particular about her food. So she sat next to where Ruby was asleep, the hacker was really cute when she slept, like a little puppy. Silently, Weiss sipped from her cup of coffee and enjoyed that, for once, she felt at peace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to say this earlier, but special thanks to Videocrazy! the real one!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to start this by saying #LetRubyCurse2K19

Ruby woke up to sunlight, that itself was odd. Normally, the only light she saw in the morning was the neon green of her alarm clock, she bought black out curtains to be sure of that. Now, the giant ball of fire was beating her eyelids open, probably before 10 o’clock knowing her luck, thus ensuring no more sleep would be had. Ruby swore to all things unholy that one day she would build a laser that would blow up the sun. She could do it too, it would just take a lot of money and the gall to kill the entire planet.

 

When Ruby sat up, everything was a blur, so she fumbled for her glasses and put them on. Her thought process went like this: Ow, my neck hurts. Why am I on the couch? Why is Weiss next to me? OOOOOOHHHHH SHIT LAST NIGHT WAS REAL! FUCK! TITS! DAMN IT! 

 

Weiss turned her head and saw that she was awake and smiled lightly. “Hey, how you feeling?” Her voice was different from what Ruby had been shown before, cold and cutting. Now it was warm and kind.

 

Taking a deep breath, Ruby opened her mouth and tried to say something, but all that came out was a dry rasp. She felt herself go red with embarrassment and tried to bolt, only to be prevented by her own feet catching the edge of the couch and tripping her to the floor directly on her face, that’s when she finally spoke.

 

“Ow! Fucking sweet merciful Kali’s blue tits! Holy shitbags that hurt like fuck!”

 

Once she stopped loosing her litany of curses, she stood up and dusted herself off, her embarrassment forgotten. She turned and saw Weiss was shaking, her hand covering her mouth. At first she panicked and thought she was crying, but then she looked a little closer. Weiss was laughing, no, she was giggling. Maybe Ruby should have been offended, but she was too busy feeling pride at getting someone to laugh and she had managed to survive a social situation. Talk about two birds with one stone. 

 

Two birds, she thought, that phrase caught in her head, pretty soon she was standing still muttering it aloud.

 

“Two birds, Two birds, Two birds-” She broke into a grin. “Weiss, that’s it, thank you!”

 

“Ummmm...no problem?”

 

Ruby sprinted to her room and grabbed her laptop, usually she would go into what Yang called “gremlin mode” and disappear into her room for hours. But she felt like she wanted to share this, no, needed to share this. She rushed back into the living room and plopped herself right next to Weiss, who still looked confused as all hell. She booted up the machine and called up the password prompt. She had two passwords one wasRuby4daw1n and that opened up what looked like your average nerdy teenage girls desktop, complete with anime fan art. The other, a long string of numbers and characters that she had memorized and never written down, opened up a plain black desktop that looked like an old fashioned command line, this was where she kept all her less than legal things. This was what some called a plausible deniability partition. As she typed away commands Ruby started explaining.

 

“I’ve been thinking of the security system as if it was made by just one person, but the defenses are too different. And the way they always are so intuitive, no one can program a system to act like that on its own. They’re live coding, reacting as I act. It’s a damn good way to do things, but it has one minor flaw.”

 

“What’s that?” Weiss asked.

 

Ruby grinned in a way that would have most sane individuals shiver with fear. “Humans are fallible, they make mistakes. And two sleep deprived coders who have spent all night untangling my password cracker virus make a lot of mistakes.” She scoured the code, a huge sprawl of computer language that took most people years to learn. She read it and wrote it fluently, sometimes she spoke it too. She looked at it all, wildly throwing attacks that looked like what a very frustrated hacker would make. She hated doing sloppy work, but she had no choice. 

 

There! A little error in their math, so small it would go unnoticed if you weren’t looking for it. She slipped in and set up a few more automated attacks while she covered her trail. By the time they started looking around the system, she’d have buried herself so deep that they wouldn’t be able to tell her apart from their payroll sheets. 

 

“Yes! Take that you self-aggrandizing heretical fuckfaces! Kiss my ass! You thought you were cool, huh? Well look at you assholes now! Awww yeah! Suck my nonexistent dick!” Ruby was doing a little victory dance while she gloated. Yang came stumbling in, Blake in tow. 

 

“Rubes, I love ya, really and truly, I do, but it’s only nine thirty and you are seriously testing the limits of my charity.”

 

“That doesn’t fucking matter now! I’m inside Fall’s system! The motherfuckers are about to get their goddamn wrecked to shit!”

 

That woke Yang up real quick. “First of all, language. Second of all, Ruby, you magnificent genius you! I fucking love you!”

 

“Hey, why do you get to curse if I can’t?”

 

“Because, fuck you, that’s why!”

 

“Well, fuck you then!”

 

“No, fuck you!”

 

“Nuh-Uh, fuck you!”

 

“Alright, we get it!” Weiss shrieked, she got how arguments between siblings worked all too well, if she let them, they would be here for an hour.

 

“Ruby, what did you find” Blake asked, her bow was a little tilted and it was bothering the hell out of Ruby.

 

“Well,” She said, trying to ignore it. “I haven’t gone looking, yet. I had to get a little aggressive with them when I slipped in, so I’m waiting for things to die down before I- will you fix your bow please? It’s driving me nuts.” At least she could say she tried.

 

The other girl quickly reached up to her head and felt the bow, she seemed to sag with relief for a second before giving a quick nod and walking off.

 

“I’m gonna go take a shower and change.” She called as she left.

 

“Save us some hot water!” Yang yelled to her back. “And remember, there’s only two showers and one of them is Ruby only, so don’t stay in too long!”

 

“Um, Yang.” Ruby interrupted. “Weiss can use my shower if she wants.” She was probably blushing like hell.

 

Yang blank faced her. “You realize this means she’ll have to walk through your room, an area I’m only allowed in twice a month. Even then, it’s only to place a single set of objects on pads you numbered and labeled right by your door.”

 

“Yeah.” She muttered.

 

Yang seemed to draw in a deep breath and close her eyes. “Yeah, okay, I’ll let Blake know, as long as you’re cool with it, Weiss.”

 

Weiss shrugged. “Sure, better than three of us using one and wasting a bunch of time.” 

 

“Alright, Ruby’ll show you to it.”

 

They walked down the hall in silence. When Ruby reached the keypad in front of her door, she felt a bit of apprehension and froze for a second. Weiss must of caught it, because in the next second she was resting her hand on Ruby’s shoulder. Her touch was just right, not so light as to make her feel like spiders were crawling over her body and not too firm to where she felt like she was being pushed down.

 

“I can just wait for Blake and Yang to finish if you want.”

 

Ruby shook her head and steeled her resolve. If she couldn’t just be better, she was going to prove it. Quickly, she entered the thirty digit passcode and the door’s pneumatic lock hissed open. Was it over kill, probably. She swung the door open and waited for Weiss to run away. Her room was just like her, organized to obsession. The wall were red and the carpet was a nice deep black, but running across every inch, was a grid of squares, each labeled by a painted number or a sticky note in the corner.

 

“I like it,” Weiss stated. “Very you, if you don’t mind, could you explain the system to me?”

 

Ruby smiled shyly. “Ask me to find something.”

 

“Okay...oh! That black and red skirt you wore on Tuesday.”

 

She walked over to a square in the far corner and pulled the clothing out of a hamper. “Used colors are in G6, used whites next to them in F6. My desk and computer are the central part of the grid, so they are in 0. My bed is the most important after that and it is A1. I organize things by use and then I put them in a respective grid.” She folded up the skirt and put it back, then she nodded to the bathroom door. “The code to that keypad is 490126623380, I’ll write it down for you, along with my room code.”

 

Weiss visibly sagged with relief. “Thank god, I’d never be able to remember that.”

 

Ruby smirked as if to say ‘that was the whole point’ and sat down at her desk, booting up her desktop computer. A faster alternative to her laptop, but loud as hell since the fans needed to cool it were jet engines. She threw on her noise canceling headphones and told Weiss she’d be working there before turning them on.

 

While Weiss was showering, Ruby went back into the system. They had just run a diagnostics check and gave the all clear, leaving her free to take a stroll through the database. The financial records were a little dodgy, but there was nothing inherently illegal about them. She looked a little closer and found the dates of a certain kind of payment to Fall & Co. a little suspect. With the witchcraft of Google search engines, they started to match up. Fall & Co. sold itself as a chemical engineering company, but they also specialized in demolition. Every major “consultancy fee” Salem Enterprises ever paid Fall for was on the day or week after a major terrorist attack, all the way back to three years ago. Before long, Ruby was neck deep in private systems, trying to find anything that concretely linked one to the other, but all the really secret stuff seemed to be protected by a hacker’s worst enemy, air gap. The security for all the companies top secret stuff ran on it’s own private and isolated network. She, or someone else would need to physically be there and insert a usb into the system so Ruby could run her programs.

 

Ruby was so engrossed, she didn’t even notice Weiss leave the shower until her hand was on the hacker’s shoulder, once again at that perfect point of pressure. Ruby snatched off her headphones and put the computer back to sleep.

 

“Hey,” Weiss said. “Find anything?”

 

“Why would a company want to cause a terrorist attack, Weiss? I don’t really get it.”

 

“Well that’s pretty easy” Ruby still hadn’t looked at the alabaster girl yet, but when she turned, she found her wrapped in a towel and Ruby felt her mouth go dry. “It’s supply and demand. Some companies make money off of war, if war ends, they lose money. It’s like my older sister Winter used to say, ‘there’s no money in the cure, only the treatment.’”

 

Ruby heard her, she understood her, but it was pretty much overshadowed by the sound of the gears of her brain grinding to a halt. When did Weiss start to look so beautiful? Did she always look like that and Ruby hadn’t noticed? Like holy crap, those legs of her’s or her hair, how had she not noticed before now? Her skin was a little pink from the heat of the shower and it made her scar stand out a little more. Ruby really liked that scar, usually she was all about symmetry, but the scar on Weiss’s face seemed like the final brushstroke of an artist’s painting.

 

“Ruby?” Weiss’s voice broke Ruby from her revelry and she felt her face get hot. “Are you alright?”

 

“Ummmm, YeahImFineJustRememberedIGotToTalkToSomeoneAboutSomethingBye!”

 

The hooded girl burst through the door and over to the living room, thankfully Yang had gotten her turn on the shower, so Ruby had some privacy. She pulled out her phone and called one of the few people she knew other than her sister.

 

“Hey Ruby, What’s up?” Coco asked.

 

“Um, Coco, when did you realize you were...umm...”

 

“Hot? Funny? Gayer than a rainbow colored strap on?”

 

“Yeah, that one! The last one!”

 

“I mean, a lot of people say they always kind of knew, but for me it was more like I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t dated anyone and then blam, a cute rabbit Faunus walked my way and I realized I wanted to bang the shit out of her and then marry her. That’s the story of how Velvet and I got together anyways, but it depends on the person. Why do you ask?”

 

Ruby took a deep breath. “I think I just had my first gay panic.”

 

The screech of pride on the other end of her phone made Ruby think she should get checked for tinnitus after this call.

 

“Awww, my little Rose is all grown up! Who, who, who, c’mon woman, momma needs details!”

 

“Well, Yang and I are doing this job and there are two others working with us. One of them is Blake, I’m pretty sure she’s a Faunus, since she has a bow on her head and it twitches and bows aren’t supposed to do that, but she’ll tell people or she won’t, it’s not my place to say anything.”

 

“That’s a pretty far cry from the ten year old who ripped a mall store Santa’s beard off and screamed at him for being a fraud.”

 

“We don’t talk about that imposter, he was evil and I was wronged, obviously security made a mistake by kicking me out. I was liberating my fellow children from his farce.”

 

“Of course, so you like Blake?”

 

Ruby snorted. “Nah, she’s cool, but she’s more Yang’s type.”

 

“Dark, brooding, antisocial, bookworm with a nice ass and a penchant for black clothes?”

 

“Yup.”

 

“Okay, so, that narrows it down to mystery woman.”

 

“Her names Weiss, she’s got these really nice blue eyes and her skin’s really pale and her hair is this cool white color and holy fuck she has legs like a goddess. She can be kinda mean sometimes, but when she needs to be she’s so nice and she knows how to handle me shutting down and she has this slight Atlesian accent when she’s talking to herself and when she gets emotional she starts saying things in Atlesian and she has this scar over her eye that looks so pretty and she’s just so daaaawwww y’know?”

 

“Yes, I do.. Are you ready for Dr. Coco’s official diagnosis?”

 

“For the last time Coco, I refuse to accept your PhD in fashion design as a reason to call you a doctor, but yes, what’s your verdict?”

 

“You are showing all the symptoms of disaster gayness, unless you like other genders, then it could be disaster bi-ness or pan-ness, I don’t discriminate.”

 

“Oh, fucking hell! What do I do, Coco?”

 

“I can’t tell ya what to do, flower, you need to follow your heart, listen to what it says.”

 

“I-I’ll try, wait, I never told Weiss’s last name.”

 

“Honey, there’s only one Weiss worth knowing, it’s not really that common of a name. Anywho, Velv’s gonna be home soon and that means momma’s gonna get some bunny love.”

 

“Ew, but okay, see ya later.”

 

“Yeah, see ya, come visit sometime!”

 

With that, Ruby hung up and took a deep breath, holy fucking crap was she screwed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter! Hope you enjoyed!


	8. Chapter 8

Blake had finished tying her bow on her ears when she heard a knock at the door.

 

“It’s open!”

 

Yang came in, dressed in a simple yellow shirt with a purple cargo jacket over it and jeans. 

 

“Hey,” the blonde hitman said. “I got a call from a contact of mine, saying he had some information that might interest us, wanted to see if you might like to come with.”

 

Blake shrugged. “Sure, but why me?”

 

“He runs a dance club, so that means Rubes is out, bright lights, loud noises and a crap ton of sweaty people. Besides that, neither her nor Weiss would be great in a fight, but you seem like you could hold your own.”

 

“Okay then, when do we leave?”

 

Yang looked at the gold watch on her wrist. “Seven tonight, so we got five hours.”

 

Blake nodded and Yang left. Blake felt fine with this, it was part of the job, so why did she feel like she needed to find something to wear?

 

After stressing for hours on end, Blake had decided on her purple halter top, black pumps and her black leather pants, known to make people’s jaws detach from their mouths. She replaced her normal bow with a purple porkpie hat. She went strolling out to the penthouse lobby where Yang was waiting. The blonde was wearing her usual black suit with its purple button up, tonight she wore no tie and her shirt was open by three buttons. Looking at it, there seemed to be no discernible weapon bulges, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t carrying any.

 

The hitman started to smirk, but suddenly her face turned red. 

 

“You...you look nice..” Yang stammered

 

Blake smiled, it always gave her a bit of a confidence boost to turn someone into a blushing mess.

 

“Well then, let’s go.”

 

“Sure we’re taking my bike, Bumblebee”

 

As they walked up, Yang grabbed a pair of helmets and tossed one to Blake, she felt a small stab of fear. This was going to be a little hard, she couldn’t wear a hat and a helmet at the same time, but Blake was nothing if not resourceful. She thought fast and threw a couple of coins she always kept on her for distractions. Yang turned to the noise and Blake took the moment to switch out her headwear.

 

“Okay,” She said as she straddled the back of the bike. “Let’s go.”

 

Soon, they were rocketing down the street so fast that Blake had to question the street legality of Yang’s precious Bumblebee. They turned corners so tight that Blake was pretty sure they were parallel to the ground. The only thing keeping her from freaking out at their speed was the feeling of her arms around Yang’s waist. Most people were warm to touch, but Yang didn’t just seem warm, she burned. Blake felt like she was hugging a running dryer, hot, but not uncomfortably so. Finally, they arrived at the club.

 

The place had a black and red motif, with a huge neon sign that announced the name “JUNIOR’S” in flickering letters. As they walked in, Blake having switched back to her hat when Yang turned away, the throbbing music got louder and louder until she could feel it thrumming in her body.

 

“Alright, just so you know, don’t take anything offered to you by anyone but me and the bartenders unless you want to be high as a kite or passed out and don’t piss off Junior, he has a rocket launcher and he considers everyone here to be acceptable casualties.”

 

Blake nodded and followed Yang to the bar, serving drinks was a man his mid fifties wearing a black vest and red tie.

 

“Junior!” Yang greeted. “The usual for me and whatever my friend here wants.”

 

“I’ll have some water.” Blake responded, she wasn’t great at holding her drink and this didn’t seem like a good place to get drunk.

 

“Coming right up, blondie” the man named Junior grunted. “You can take ‘em in the corner booth.”

 

Yang nodded and took Blake back to a booth that was safe from the glaring lights, a few minutes later, Junior came over with a glass of ice water and a drink that went from pink to yellow and had a small umbrella in it. He plopped the two drinks on the table and sat down.

 

“Alright, blondie, listen, what I’m about to tell ya, ya didn’t hear from me, got it?”

 

“Course, Junior, y’know I don’t rat on my people.”

 

“Nah, ya don’t, but this isn’t your garden variety shit. Ya remember how I didn’t wanna tell ya about Raven.”

 

“Yeah, you were pretty tight lipped about it until I made ya into a temporary soprano.”

 

Junior winced. “Yeah, well this is the type of information that I wouldn’t even reveal under torture. Raven was me sticking my neck out, this is me painting ‘come kill my daughters and ruin any future business this place could have” in neon green on my forehead.”

 

“So, what’s making you talk now?” Blake butted in.

 

Junior narrowed his eyes for a second before answering. “A one way ticket to hell by the name of liver failure, no legal doctor will take me and the underground ones will just make it worst, probably gonna die soon. I’m leaving this place to Melanie and Miltia. After that, I’m going to drink what’s left of my life away. Anyways, here.” He slipped a simple black usb across the table and stood up. “That has information on everyone in Fall & Co.’s goon squad, the stuff’s encrypted, but since ya live with y’know who, it’ll take about an hour to get through.”

 

“Thanks, Junior.” Yang said, her voice was rough like she was holding back a few tears. “Remember, if you need anything from me, I owe ya one.”

 

Junior gave a sad little smile. “Only one thing I’d ask for blondie, I know ya and the twins don’t get along, but do me a favor and keep them out of trouble, yeah? If that fails, keep trouble away from them.”

 

Yang stood up and gave Junior a hug. “You’re too good a guy for this world, Junior, I promise I’ll keep them safe.”

 

Junior pushes her off, chuckling. “Awright, awright, blondie, don’t go gettin’ all sappy on me, I had a good run, let me go and wave hi to my ma and pop and Mary at the pearlies  while I go down to the flames.”

 

Yang sniffed. “Yeah, alright old man, I’ll see ya there.”

 

Junior smiled and turned away. “Don’t go rushing to meet me there, I want ya to live twice as long as me, so I better not see ya until your ninety, ya hear?”

 

Yang just looked at his passing figure and said, “The curse of the criminal is that he lives in pain.”

 

Junior called over his shoulder, “And the blessing is that he dies in peace.”

 

With that, Junior faded into the crowd. Yang looked at Blake, her eyes were cloudy, but the sorrow wasn’t the same as the night before, that was an unfilled hole in Yang, this was an acceptance, an expected outcome that the hitman knew was going the endgame.

 

“C’mon,” Yang said. “I don’t think I want to stay here, I’d rather get piss drunk in the safety of my own home.”

 

“Yeah,” Blake said, this blonde had so many facets to her sadness it left her stunned. “Yeah, let’s go.”

 

Together, they got up and walked away, leaving a dying man to his fate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yang's a armless little dragon...okay I'll go now.


	9. Chapter 9

Weiss really hated the part of her job she was participating in now. The grueling work of  memorizing all the little details of people. She already knew everything about her supposed “counterpart” from Fall & Co. the CEO herself Cinder Fall and her brain felt like it would explode. Yang walked in and glanced at the table where the former heiress had laid down all the dossiers Ruby had decrypted.

 

“Y’know you don’t have to do that, right? Ruby already read them.”

 

“And how, pray tell, does that help me know the information?”

 

Yang sat down and looked at Weiss. “Rubes’ got something called a near-eidetic memory, she can remember a lot, not everything, but whatever her brain considers important is stored until a later date. If she’s read these, she knows them all by heart. Watch.”

 

Yang called Ruby over from the couch and grabbed a random dossier. “Rubes, what can ya tell me about Emerald Sustrai?”

 

“Age: 17, Date of Birth: Unknown, Green Hair, Tan Skin, Red Eyes. Professional Thief, employed by Cinder Fall. Was raised by Fall when discovered on the streets, leaving Sustrai with a feeling of debt. She is completed devoted to Fall and will turn for nothing. However, she is extremely arrogant and believes she cannot make mistakes.”

 

Weiss looked on in disbelief as Ruby recited word for word what was on the file. 

 

“Thanks Rubes,” Yang said. “You can go back to what you were doing.”

 

Silently, Ruby walked away and went back to her laptop on the couch. Yang turned back to Weiss. 

 

“Ruby’s going to be talking to ya through an earpiece the whole time. Everyone thinks I’m great at my job because I study the marks, but really, that’s what Ruby does, she runs the show from the penthouse.”

 

Weiss wasn’t really all that shocked, Ruby always seemed to remember exactly what everyone said, applying that to her work wasn’t that far of a stretch.  To think though, that this small girl could be a veritable vault of information was a little harder to believe.

 

“Anyways, I got an idea for getting the high clearance card we need for the air gap.”

 

“Well,” Weiss snarked. “By all means, share with the class Ms. Xiao-Long.”

 

“Pretty easy, we get you to steal it.”

 

“Oh, why hadn’t I thought of that.” Weiss deadpanned

 

“Now, hear me out, we know which people will have full access to the air gapped areas, right Ruby?”

 

“Mercury Black needs it since he does sweeps of the area, Cinder Fall has full access to all areas, a few high level scientists and fucking Roman Torchwick and Neopolitan do regular security checks, bastards.” After she found out who was behind Fall & Co.’s security, Ruby had developed the habit of attaching colorful language to their names. 

 

“So, all you need to do is play the Delilah to their Sampson an  _ bam _ , one security card.”

 

“Don’t try it on Black,” Ruby called over her shoulder “he’s well known to be asexual, it seems the only thing that gets him hot and bothered is beating, killing and possibly the torture of small animals, that last one is unconfirmed. Your best bet at seduction would be Neopolitan, she’s mute, so communication might be difficult, but she’s also rumored to be somewhat of a horndog, so long as you don’t mind some scratch marks.”

 

Weiss felt a little flustered. “How do you know all of this? I didn’t read any of that in the dossiers.”

 

Ruby threw a droll look over her shoulder. “I’ve been in their system for two days, once I had names, I just created a program that flagged any correspondence with their names or any variations.”

 

“Of course you did,” Weiss muttered. “I’ll keep that in mind, but I don’t know how I’m going to be able to sneak a card off her.”

 

“You snag it during the initial flirting, rub your hands all up against her and hand it off to someone else behind your back.” Blake said, arriving in the living room.

 

Weiss sat and folded her hands under her chin, while it seemed like a logical plan, she wasn’t quite comfortable with using sex like that. It was their best option though, but what about Ruby? She froze in her thoughts, what  _ about  _ Ruby? Where had that idea came from? She shook her mind loose and looked at the other girls.

 

“Can I think about it?”

 

Yang nodded and the others followed. “ ‘Course, don’t feel pressured either, it’s your choice and no one here is going to blame ya for saying no.”

 

“Agreed.” Blake said. “It’s not our place to ask you do something like this without you wanting to.”

 

“Yeah,” Ruby said, she seemed a little demure. “It’s your choice one hundred percent, no one will sway you one way or the other. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to make a call.” The hacker quickly got up and left the room.

 

After her sister left, Yang turned to Weiss and looked at her awkwardly. “Hey, I just wanted to say...thanks.” She said, rubbing the back of her neck. “Rubes used to stay in her room for ninety percent of the day. I don’t know what ya did, but it’s helped her a hell of a lot more than me and my way.” 

 

“Yeah, well no problem, but your way had some merits, you just need to give her a little more leash to run with. She needs to be cared for, no doubt, but smothering her won’t make her better.”

 

“I think I’m starting to get that.” Yang responded, looking back at Blake. “I just needed some help getting it through my head.”

 

Blake turned away and blushed slightly.

 

_ Ahhhhh _ , Weiss thought. “So how long have you two...?”

 

“Hm?” Blake said, looking alarmed, before turning a hilarious shade of red. “Oh we’re not like that...”

 

Yang’s head seemed to droop, now Weiss got it, time to do a bit of match making, just plant the seed.

 

“Shame,” the former heiress said, trying to sound like a disinterested observer. “You two would make a beautiful couple.”

 

Once again the blonde’s head popped up like a Jack-in-the-box. “You think so?” She asked enthusiastically.

 

“Sure, I don’t see why not.” With that she turned away and walked down the hall, seed officially planted. She stopped suddenly when she heard a very familiar voice groan in frustration.

 

“What do I do, Coco?” Ruby asked. There was only silence for a few seconds.

 

“No, I know...alright then, look I’ve got an appointment with Peach tomorrow, maybe the science of brain picking can give me some insight...Ok...talk to you later...mhm...yeah, you too.”  The girl hung up and Weiss heard her walk to the door. Quickly, she bolted out of the hall into the nearest room, Ruby’s “supply closet”. The supply closet was really a spare bedroom where Ruby kept all her obsolete computers, leaving them in stacks across the floor. Finally, she heard the other girl walk back into the hall, leaving her to wonder exactly what was going on with her. And wondering how she could help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I'm going to start alternating on my two works. In other words, when I update No Such Thing, I'll Work on Rose has thorns, updates might come slower, but know that I'm still working on everything.
> 
> Yours In Brimstone,
> 
> HaveAngstWillWrite


	10. Chapter 10

Yang Xiao-Long wasn’t very patient, that had always been a flaw and had almost cost her a job on more than one occasion. This impatience was really put to the test now that she had been waiting for weeks to get on with this job. They had all the information and all the resources and yet, anytime she suggested they move along and get going, she got the same answer; not yet. Yang wasn’t meant to stay still, she had to be moving, she always had to be doing, having her sit still was like putting a lion in a ten foot cage.

 

The stress of it all had come to a culmination when she had almost snapped at Ruby, something she probably never would have forgiven herself. However, Weiss, who had taken to the duty of Ruby protector and the group’s stress navigator like a duck to water, stopped her and pointed out the door.

 

“Gym.” The heiress ordered, her tone leaving no room for argument. “Now.”

 

After a couple of rounds on the punching bag, the blonde was starting to feel much better. The stiffness of the bag meeting her flesh and metal fists was really cathartic. Contrary to what most thought, while Yang’s prosthetic was stronger than a normal arm, it didn’t let her punch through things like concrete or thick wood. The prosthetic only went a little past her elbow and there was more to a punch than the fist and arm, hips, shoulder, waist, legs, back, every part of the body was engaged. She let herself get lost in focusing on that careful strength, the delicate play of each muscle. Her body danced to a very precise rhythm, one that she was well practiced at.

 

She hadn’t always been like that, at first her movements were clumsy and rigid, but she learned. Oh, did she learn, she was beaten by guys twice her age since she was 12 and , she took on anybody who even thought of touching Ruby. She learned how to fight and then she learned how to do it in the most effective and cruel way possible. It took years and quite a few broken bones, but she got damn good at fighting.

Yang kept hitting the bag, adding kicks and knee and elbow thrusts. She wasn’t thinking about the rhythm anymore, that was ingrained in her now, she wasn’t thinking about anything, but she was thinking about someone. Long black hair, stern expression and angry scarlet eyes. She threw a left hook. _Left me_. A roundhouse. _Left Dad_. A flying knee. _One day, I’ll find you_. Uppercut. _One day, you’ll pay_.

 

She delivered a final punch to the bag, causing the leather to rip a bit and turned around, leaning on a nearby wall was Blake. Looking at the damage she had caused, the girl in black let out a low whistle.

 

“I don’t envy any inanimate objects that stand in your way. What did that poor bag do to you?”

 

“Yeah,” Yang chuckled nervously “I got into it there for a second.”

 

Blake walked up and placed her hand on Yang’s shoulder.

“You know if you need something a little more, we can always go a few rounds in the ring.”

 

Yang shook her head quickly. “Nah, I don’t fight people unless it’s for a reason.”

 

“Well, that’s a good value to have.” Blake said, she seemed truly pleased with the hitman’s answer. “It’s hard to let anger go.”

 

Yang felt her hand shake a bit. “I don’t really let it go, it’s more like I hold it in until I need it.”

 

Blake nodded. “I knew someone who couldn’t even do that, he was spite and rage in a condensed and leaking package. He was always angry, always filled with hate.”Her grip on Yang’s shoulder tightened. “He let it fester, let it consume him.”

 

“Sounds like a horrible way to live”

 

Blake’s grip suddenly loosened and Yang saw her tracing a scar on her arm, long and neat, like a slash from a blade. “You have no idea.”

 

Yang couldn’t help the clenching of her fists, who would dare hurt this beautiful woman. If she ever found who did this, well, they’d have to hope he had DNA on record, otherwise his body would be a John Doe.

 

“Anyways, I came down here to let you know that we’re ready to move on Fall. Thought that might cheer you up.”

 

Yang grinned, finally, now they could get something done.

 

MEANWHILE...

 

“Gah!” Roman yelled over his computer. “Does Cinder think I’m gonna just be able to magic her another fucking security system, we have like ten different networks already, why does she need another? I need my sleep you know!”

 

_And yet_ , Neo typed, _you’re still going to pound some Red Bull and get to work._

 

“Yeah, but only because option number two is getting x-ed out.”

 

“Oh, I don’t know about that Roman.” A voice called from the shadows revealing red hair, black clothes, a sword at the waist and a white mask.

 

“After all,” Adam Taurus stated, with a cruel smile. “There are fates worse than death.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! Late night chapter. Although if you’re anything like me, your circadian rhythm is more fucked than the national debt of the U.S.


	11. Chapter 11

TRANSCRIPT OF R. [Session 431] [Name of patient and associates redacted for confidentiality]

 

Peach: How are we today, R?

 

R: A little confused, Doctor. [patient looks down and starts playing with rug on floor.]

 

Peach: How so?

 

R: I feel...odd...

 

Peach: Well, let’s consider what’s going on in your life, start at the base and work our way up.

 

R: Ok...Y and I got hired for a job.

 

Peach: Ok, and does this job have anything different about it?

 

R: Yeah, we’re working with other people.

 

Peach: You’ve done that a few times before, what’s different about this one?

 

R: They’re staying with us.

 

Peach: That means you accepted a change, I’m proud you let them, that shows improvement.

 

R: [patient snorts derisively] You sound like my sister.

 

R: Thanks, I’m also pretty sure have a crush on one.

 

Peach:...That’s good, right?

 

R: [patient shrugs] We’ll see, Doctor, we’ll see.

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Ruby was pacing back and forth in front of her computer. She had three monitors on, each linked to a different pinhole camera. One on the left was showing the outside of a coffee shop near Fall & Co.’s HQ from a bench, a pair of black clad legs crossed over one another. On the right was a rooftop overlooking the lobby, a rifle propped on the edge, leather gloves wrapped around the stock and barrel, finger resting off the trigger. The final screen in the middle showed the inside of the self same coffee shop as before, in view was a girl with pink and brown hair, dressed in a similar color scheme. The girl bought her coffee and started to leave. The camera got up to follow, then the next, trailing half a block behind a girl in white and the brown and pink one. The rooftop followed with its scope, tracking all three. 

 

Ruby clicked on her mic. “Alright, positions look good, let’s do this.”

 

In seconds, Weiss had Neopolitan pinned to a wall in an alley and was whispering sweet nothings in her ear, hands running down the mute’s body in ways that Ruby felt extremely uncomfortable and irrationally angry about. Tearing her eyes away, she saw Blake snatch the card that Weiss had just swiped and was holding at just the edge of the wall.

 

The thief walked away and started towards the lobby door. It was the middle of the night, so only the security guard was there. Weiss told them not to worry about him.

 

“He’s going to be tired and he’s already underpaid, that’s a recipe for not giving a fuck.”

 

Blake walked past with a nod and the man barely looked up from his book. She scanned the card onto the door that was supposed to lead to the air gapped network. The light went green and the door slid open. Honestly, Ruby thought Weiss would’ve been better at this, walking around like you belonged in the place, but they needed her to get Neo’s keycard. Ruby had already turned off that screen, it was way too much for her to watch.

 

The banks of computers were dark and silent, no living thing seemed to exist in there. Quietly, Blake took the flash drive Ruby had given her out of her pocket and plugged it into a computer before turning it on and holding down the keys she instructed. Soon, a progress bar popped up and started ticking away. By Ruby’s approximation, whis was pretty spot on, it would take half an hour to upload.

 

“Hey, Rubes, we got a bit of a problem.” Yang called from her mic.

 

The hacker swiveled her focus to Yang’s feed and saw a silver haired boy walking towards the building. It was Black,  Ruby was panicking a small bit, if he looked in the air gap section, they were screwed.

 

“Stall him.”

 

“Um, how?”

 

Ruby did what she did best, thought about it. It was one a.m. in the financial district, that meant no one on the streets except hobos and criminals.

 

“Shoot at him,  _ at him _ , Yang, we want to lure him away, not leave a dead body on Fall’s doorstep.”

 

“Aye, aye, cap’n.” She cocked the bolt of her rifle and fired a well placed shot between his feet. Black turned quick and looked for where the shot came from. Yang stood up and waved the arm that held the rifle and dashed to the other side of the roof. The last thing she saw of Black was him rushing towards the building. Ruby glanced back at Blake’s feed, they had used up ten minutes and the download was almost a third done, just like Ruby thought. It was pretty much good there and everything seemed to be running fine. She decided to poke the system and reroute some processing power to speed things up. She took some from a simulation runner and used it to cut the time in half.  

 

She flipped back to Yang and started advising. They were locked in hand-to hand combat, kicks and punches being traded after one another.

 

“He’s trained in capoeira,” Ruby observed. “Use some countermeasures for airborne opponents.”

 

They flipped and spun and struck at each other. Ruby was so focused, she hadn’t even noticed that someone was trying to push her out of the system. A text box appeared on her computer screen. 

 

**_Little Red, Little Red, don’t you know that you shouldn’t stick your nose where it doesn’t belong?_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the tiny hiatus, I was really busy! Hope you enjoy, criticism is welcome!


	12. Chapter 12

_ Kicking his ass,  _ Yang thought as she threw another punch at Black, letting it get blocked by his shin.  _ Is proving to be way harder than I thought. _ Usually, she’d have knocked him out and been skipping away, but he didn’t seem to be even half as tired 

 

“Hey, Rubes.” Yang said, speaking into her mic. “Any more advice on how to beat this guy?”

 

A response crackled in the blonde’s ear. “Busy, Torchwick, Prosthetic legs, overconfident, equal match, bye.”

 

_ Well aren’t you a font of information. _ Yang snarked in her head. She focused on Ruby’s words, the first to were about her own situation, but the rest were applicable to Yang’s. Black had prosthetic legs, she reasoned as she blocked another kick with her metal arm. Probably military grade if he wasn’t afraid to fight with them, it also explained why he wasn’t tiring as fast, half his body didn’t need energy, so he had more to expend. After another bout of traded blows, the two broke apart and stared each other down from across the roof.

 

“Nice tats, blondie.” Black said with a smirk. “Shame that I’m about to tear ‘em off your skin.” As he said it, Yang saw a flash of something in his eyes, something that made her think his heart wasn’t in the threat. However, before she could decipher it, his gaze went cold, his eyes like obsidian. Yang tried to stay silent, most times, she was a chatterbox and a half, but the job she tried to be serious. Sometimes though, she just couldn’t resist.

 

“Hey,” she joked. “Why’s your humor so  _ black _ ?”

 

The smirked morphed into an annoyed grimace and Black launched forward with a kick. Yang dodged to the left and delivered an elbow to his side. She heard a cracking sound and Black crumpled to one knee, he turned and bared his teeth like a feral dog. Yang smirked and pulled the knife from her boot, she would’ve pulled it out sooner, but if she had tried it would’ve left a gap in her defense. She couldn’t kill him, but a knife didn’t need to kill, just injure severely. She slashed at his pants leg to reveal dull steel and white LEDs. She looked closer and with cold efficiency, shoved the blade through a seam in the metal into a tangle of wires. The prosthetics kicked and spasmed before going limp. 

 

“Go ahead, blondie,” Mercury sneered. “Finish the job.”

 

Sighing, Yang turned away, he wasn’t part of the job and she didn’t do extras.

 

“Hey!” Black yelled. “Finish me! Do it you coward!”

 

Yang climbed down to the street and started walking back to Bumblebee, she wondered how Blake was doing.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

“I am completely fine with my situation” Blake whispered to herself. “Not panicking at all. Not like anyone could walk into this room at any moment. Yep, it’s all fine.”

 

Her earpiece crackled to life. “Blake, stop panicking,” Ruby said “I need you to do someth- Ahhh! Fucking shit!”

 

“What’s wrong?” Blake asked, her panic rising a bit.

 

“Motherfucking Torchwick. The bastard found me squatting in his system and he’s trying to slap my ass with an eviction notice. I’m trying to quarantine him, but he’s like a fucking snake, he keeps slipping out. Luckily, I found a way around, I just need your help.”

 

“What do you need me to do?”

 

“Well, I need you to help me shut down the entire system.”

 

“I thought you said the air gap thing wouldn’t let it affect the rest of the facility.”

 

“I thought so too, but I did some digging and this isn’t a true air gap, it’s a one way system, it can send, but it can’t receive. It’s actually perfect for what I have planned. I want you to hold down the following keys, Control, ALT, escape, C,R.”

 

Blake did as she was told and a black box with red text appeared. 

 

**Crescent Rose Virus Command entered, do you want to continue? YES/NO**

 

“Type in ‘yes’.” Ruby commanded

 

~~**YES** ~~ **/NO**

 

**Crescent Rose Virus active, please standby.**

 

Blake wouldn’t learn this until much later, but what she had released was pure chaos. Ruby hadn’t explained it in depth, but the implications of the cliffnotes were terrifying enough. The virus clambered through each firewall and security system like a swarm of insects, fast and unkillable. Every system it touched, the code was devoured and spit back up encoded, compressed and randomized, essentially rendering anything that wasn’t being pulled out by the origin computer, the one Blake was using, into complete and utter gibberish. As for what this did to the real world of the Fall & Co. building, it was quite horrifying. Lights became bright as hell and flickered on and off at unpredictable intervals, music files were pulled at random and played at max volume, screens played psychedelic colors in lightning fast disorientating flashes, air conditioners were at 10 degrees in some rooms and 95 in others, it was enough to make anyone beg for mercy. As Ruby put it later, “I made everyone in that building walk in my shoes for five minutes. They just didn’t have the practice to handle it.”

 

Looking at the havoc the girl rained, Blake understood for the first time why she should be feared.

 

A ding sounded behind Blake, turning around, she saw the download had completed. Quickly, the faunus yanked the usb free and dashed out of the computer banks. Not even bothering to act natural, Blake sprinted outside and found Yang waiting for her with Bumblebee revved up. She hopped on without a word and they blasted down the street. 

 

“Ruby,” Blake said. “I got the download, we’re heading back now.”

 

“We might have a problem,” the hacker responded, her voice was shaky and hoarse. “Weiss hasn’t called in.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OwO whats dis? new chapter?


	13. Chapter 13

_“Oh my g...her back...”_

 

_Why do I feel so cold?_

 

_”Ruby...found...heading back...”_

 

_It hurts, why does it hurt?_

 

_”I’ll take...on...bee...you...cab...”_

 

_So much pain..._

 

_”If I ever see Neopol...hands in her_ _anus!”_

 

_I feel so much pain...did I anger father again?_

 

_“Call...Junip...need help...”_

 

_I feel sleepy...so tired...is this...dying?_

 

_”Jesus...pened to her?”_

 

_Am I ready to die? Mutter? Will I see you when I do?_

 

_”Ruby calm do...not helpin...go sit...”_

 

_Ruby? Where’s Ruby? Can’t see her...too much pain...makes me sleepy...What’s that? Voices...they sound clearer..._

_”Hey, Weiss, it’s Yang...god this is stupid...listen...you better not die...I feel like I gained another sister in you...I feel like you should know I’m waiting for you...We all are...”_

 

_”I know we don’t get along Weiss...but you’re too strong for this...come back...for us...”_

 

_”Please please please please please please please...wake up...please...I need you...”_

 

_That’s right...I can’t die...she needs me...”_

 

_—————————————————————_

 Weiss woke up blearily on her stomach, in the room that she had been using as her own at the penthouse. In the room was a blonde boy with blue eyes washing a cloth in a water basin.

 

”mmmnnn...who’re you...?” She mumbled

 

The boy jumped a foot in the air an yelped.

 

”Good, you’re awake.” He said after regaining his composure. “I’ll go tell the others.”

 

As he turned to walk away, Weiss grabbed his wrist.

 

”What happened?”

 

The boy’s face turned a little solemn. “What do you remember?”

 

”Neo and me kissing and touching and then a knife...and then-“ she gasped, it all came rushing back to her. Each slow and measured drag of the blade across her back. She tried to sit up, but the boy held her down.

 

”I wouldn’t try that, you’ve got a lot of stitches back there. You were in pretty bad shape when I saw you and the drive here spreaded your wounds open a bit, Ren had to use a lot of line for them.”

 

”You’re a doctor?”

 

”Sorta.” He responded. “Jaune Arc.”

 

He was fidgeting a lot and glancing around nervously. Weiss narrowed her eyes.

 

”What are you hiding.”

 

The fidgets stopped, Jaune frowned and looked at her with concern.

 

”I didn’t want to bring this up, it’s more Pyrrha’s thing talking about this stuff. I noticed something while I was tending to your back...”

 

Weiss involuntarily stiffened and then winced at the pain.

 

”What?”

 

Jaune looked to the ground and seemed to search for the right words.

 

”Um...I found that the, um, fresh lacerations had old scar tissue underneath them...scar tissue that is similar to that of a flog or whip...not used in a sexual nature either from the force that would’ve had to been used to make those lacerations...so...um...I wanted to ask...if...um...if you-“

 

”Yes, Jaune,” Weiss cut in. “Yes, it’s exactly what you think. No, I’m not over it. Yes, my father’s a monster.” She delivered all this like they were talking about the weather, trying to pass herself off as nonchalant.  _Yep, I talk about my abusive father all the time, no biggie._

 

”Oh, well then, that covers that.”  He responded, looking like she had done something unexpected. “I’ll get the others now.”

 

”Just Ruby.”

 

He turned around and gave a small smile. “Alright, just Ruby.” And with that he walked out the door.

 

It was mere seconds between Jaune leaving and Ruby appearing by her side, a grin taking over her whole face.

 

”Weiss, I’m so glad you’re okay!”

 

Despite the pain, Weiss couldn’t help but release a small smile at the ball of energy.

 

”Yeah, I’m okay, Ruby.”

 

Tears collected in the hacker’s eyes and she started sniffle.

 

”Hey, Hey,” Weiss said, grabbing Ruby’s face, concern beating pain. “What’s wrong?”

 

”It’s my fault you got hurt!” Ruby said, sobbing into the former heiress’ hands. “I turned off your camera because I didn’t want to see you with that girl and I forgot to check in with you and, and, and, I’m just so sorry...” Wet, ugly sobs wracked the smaller girls body.

 

”Shhh, mein liechben, it’s okay, I don’t blame you.”

 

Ruby looked up, still crying. “Really?”

 

”Of course, I could never blame you.”

 

The girl collapsed into Weiss’s arms again and the white haired girl left the last part of her sentence unsaid.

 

_I could never blame you, because I love you too much._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I’m supposed to do another Rose Has Thorns update, but I got on a bit of a roll.


	14. Chapter 14

It had been two days since the raid on Fall & Co. and everyone was in full recovery mode. Weiss was stuck laying on her stomach while Ruby and that Jaune guy took care of her. Yang had explained about Jaune to Blake when they were hanging out and Blake got curious. Apparently he was one of four members in the Juniper Leaves Clinic. They did first aid and backdoor surgery for most people that was Jaune and Ren, the guy who had stitched up Weiss’ back, area of expertise. However, they also had a psychiatrist named Pyrrha and a physical therapist named Nora on staff for different problems. Blake toyed with asking for Pyrrha’s number, but that would’ve been a little too awkward for her.

 

At the moment, Blake was lounging on the couch reading one of the books from the nearby shelf. It was called  _ Little Brother _ and it was all in all a compelling story about hackers, social engineering and oppressors. She was enjoying it quite thoroughly when she heard someone padding on bare feet behind her. Turning around, Blake saw Weiss in a large, loose white shirt that hung from her shoulder, leaving her collarbone exposed, underneath was a pair of blue short shorts.  _ Damn,  _ Blake thought,  _ Ruby would probably be so jealous right now.  _

 

“Weiss, what are you doing? Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

 

A small frown graced the former heiress’ face and she let out a small grumble. Blake cocked her head and listened a little harder.

 

“Say again?”

 

Weiss sighed. “I’m a little tired of being pampered.”

 

“I would’ve thought a princess like you would’ve enjoyed having your whim cared for” Blake teased.

 

The white haired girl grimaced. “Jaune’s kind and Ruby is so eager to help, but I’ve spent my entire life being waited on and  _ loathed _ it. I want to do this with my own strength, I hate being weak.”

 

“I don’t think asking for help is weakness, Weiss.”

 

The other girls head shot up and icy blue eyes glared at Blake.

 

“To ask for help is the same as using a crutch.”

 

“To quote the sisters ‘nope’”

Weiss’ eye twitched. “Nope?”

 

Blake smirked “Nope”

 

“Elucidate your argument if you would.”

 

Blake’s face turned serious. “Weiss, when someone asks for help, they are accepting that they can’t handle something on their own. They cast away pride and recognize their limitations, that’s what make them strong. The ability to know when something is beyond them. The only people who are weak are those that are too proud to admit they need help.”

 

Weiss narrowed her eyes and poked Blake in the cheek. “When did you get all wise man?”

 

Blake shrugged and went back to her book. Weiss let loose a yawn and started to let her head droop.

 

“Hey, Blakey?”

 

“What’s up, Weiss.”

 

“Have you ever noticed how pretty Ruby is...Like  _ sooooooo _ pretty...She has dat face that looks like a puppy and it makes me jus’ make me wanna squish her cheeks and hold her pretty face...an’ dose eyes...ohmigod Blakey, haf you seen her  _ eyes _ ...dey’re so pretty...dey look like stars…” As Weiss rambled on her eyes took on a look of reverence, like she was seeing a cosmic miracle.

 

“You alright Weiss?”

 

“Can you keep a secret, Blakey? I tink I love Ruby…”

 

This was definitely way out of what Blake was prepared for when it came to Weiss.

 

“Are you high or something?”

 

“mmmmnnnn...Jaune gave me some painkillers...make me seepy…” The white haired girl laid her head in Blake’s lap. “Imma nap now...nigh’ Blakey...”

 

Before Blake could even protest, Weiss was sleeping in her lap soundly like a little child.  _ Oh man,  _ she thought as she brushed a lock of hair from the forme heiress' face, _You are an absolute disaster_ .

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A smol chapter with some friendly bonding between Blake and Weiss. Also, Weiss is a smol disaster gay and nothing will change my mind.


	15. Chapter 15

Yang was watching T.V. when she got the call. She was trance watching a dull sitcom to decompress after all the shit from the mission. She couldn’t help but feel guilty as hell about Weiss, it had been her idea that got the girl injured, her fault, her failure, like always. As all this was running through her head, her phone started to ring. Checking the number, Yang saw it was Melanie. Sighing, she answered the call.

“Hey, whaddya need?” It was strange any time she talked to Junior or the twins her street accent decided to get twice as strong.

Melanie’s voice seemed tight and Yang could hear Miltia sniffling in the background.

“It’s...um...it’s Junior...he’s not doing great...said he wanted to talk to you.”

It was happening. “I’ll be over in ten minutes.” She hung up and grabbed her helmet, on her way out she ran into Blake.

“What’s happening?” The thief asked.

“I’m going to Junior’s he’s not doing well.”

“I can go with you if you need.”

Yang shook her head.

“I need to do this alone.”

Blake nodded in understanding and turned away without a word.

—————————————————————————————————————————

It didn’t take Bumblebee long to arrive at the club. The lights that usually graced the exterior were off and there was a big sign on the doors that stated in big letters: WE ARE CLOSED, FUCK OFF! Yang gave the door a couple of hearty knocks. It swung open to reveal the twins, their eyes were red and puffy and the were dressed in simple sweats. The vacant expression in their eyes was one Yang remembered well, it was the same expression her dad had after Summer passed. They were in mourning already.

“Hey, where’s he at?”

The twins led Yang silently through the club, she had never seen it silent before, it was honestly eerie. Before long, they were in the apartment that was directly above the club and several layers of sound proofing foam. The girls waved her into Junior’s room, the walls were bare except for a few instruments signed by various famous people throughout the years. When she reluctantly turned her gaze to the bed, Yang felt like she’d been punched in the gut.

She remembered the first time she met Junior, the man was large and tough, his hair was a deep black and he looked like he could take on the world. This wasn’t that man, this man’s skin was colour of old parchment and sagging, his eyes were a light yellow, he was frail and had a distended belly, that night sky hair had been dashed with stars of silver.

“Hey, blondie.” The man croaked in a rough voice a sad smile playing on his lips. “Ya still wanna give me that kid ya owe?”

Yang chuckled through the tears that had started spilling from her eyes. “Fuck you, Hei.”

The man let out a laugh that turned into a cough. “We’re using first names, huh? Okay, Yang, I’ll roll with it.”

The blonde took the mans hand. “How ya doin’ Hei?”

Junior gave her hand a small squeeze and smiled softly. “I’m okay, considering the circumstances.”

“If ya’d just let me call my friends, they’re great doctors-”

“Imma stop ya right there, even if I wanted that, it’s too late. I’m in the late stage, Yang, I’m not gonna survive a new liver, let alone one that probably won’t be compatible. I’m gonna go out on my terms, I just called you up so I could see you one last time.” He reached up wit the hand she wasn’t holding and cupped her cheek lightly, a glimmer of tears shone in his eye. “You were always like another daughter to me Yang, it’s why I always called you on your birthday, why I always asked how you were doing. You remind me so much of Millicent.” The twins stiffened slightly at the name. “Sorry, I should explain, ya see, Melanie and Miltia were triplets, Millicent was there sister, she got taken by a fever when she was twelve. She was just like you sunshine with an edge. You’re like her in so many ways, Yang. If I believed in reincarnation I would have thought her soul was in your body. Yang, I loved ya just like I loved her.”

“I understand, Hei.” The tears were flowing fast now and words were getting tougher to get out. Yang felt like some demon of sadness was clawing her throat. This man didn’t deserve this, he was too kind, too damned charitable. The only thing that made him a criminal were the circumstances of his status.

“I loved ya like my own daughter, which is why it pains me to ask ya one last favor.”

“Anything.” Yang promised, she felt like she could move the earth if he asked her to.

He pulled her down by the back of the neck and touched her forehead to his. “I need ya to end this, Yang.”

The blood in her veins turned to ice. “What?”

Junior sighed. “I’ve talked about it with the twins. I looked up the symptoms of late stage liver failure, one of them is memory loss. I don’t want to die not knowin’ who the twins are or where I am. So, I’m asking ya, please, finish this before I reach that point.”

“Ya...Ya want me to kill ya?” The shock had caused the tears to stop, Yang just couldn’t find a single emotion to choose to feel.

Junior gave a solemn nod and stared deep into her eyes. Yang turned back to the twins.

“And you agreed to this?”

Melanie was to busy sobbing, but Miltia managed a small whispered “Yes.”

Yang took a deep breath. “I’m not sure I can do this, Hei.”

“Yes, ya can, Yang Xiao-Long. Wanna know why? Ya can do this, not because you’re a killer or in the profession of one, but because you’re merciful. Ya don’t like seeing people suffer, every one of your kills are clean and quick. I’ve seen the sick puppies in this world, you’re not one of ‘em.”

Yang stayed silent, closing her eyes tight. Her head was spinning with all the information, he wanted her kill him. One of the few men she loved wanted her to end his life. She weighed it in her head, the morality of it, the emotion she felt for it, and came to a decision. She looked Junior, no, Hei, right in his eyes. “Okay.”

They sent the twins out of the room, agreeing that this wasn’t something they needed to see. Yang pulled a knife from her boot and put it right under his sternum, a quick and painless death.

“Ya ready to meet your maker, Hei?”

Hei chuckled softly. “Yeah, I got some choice words for the fuckwit.”

“Any last words?” The last syllable was no more than a hoarse whisper.

“Yeah, Always live and die the exact same way, fulfilled.”

Yang chuckled sadly. “Who said that?”

Hei reached up and brushed a tear from her cheek. “Just me.”

Yang gave one last smile and plunged the blade into his heart. “Goodnight, Hei Xiong.”

She withdrew the blade and left the club without turning back, stopping only to leave her number on the table for the twins to call her when the funeral was ready or if they needed any help. As she walked up to Bumblebee, all Yang felt was numb. She looked up to the sky and whispered to it.

“Who’re ya takin’ next?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I CAME TO MAKE SOME MUDDAFUCKAS WEEP!  
> Anywho, if you read my other RWBY Fic The Rose Has Thorns, you’ve already heard this. For those who don’t, I’m sorry I haven’t updated lately, I’m swamped with a bunch of work, plus I’m working on an original story on Wattpad and Tapas called the Deciever check it out! (My name on Wattpad is slightly different, It’s HasAngstWillWrite) and I’m working on a couple one shots for other fandoms. So, yeah, soz about the late updates!
> 
> Yours in Damnation,  
> HaveAngstWillWrite


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